In Saturday’s Irish Times, Bono talks to Simon Carswell and there is an extract from his autobiography, Surrender. Zak Moradi talks to Keith Duggan about his new memoir, Life Begins in Leitrim. Stars including Dara O Briain and Marian Keyes talk about My Favourite Place in Ireland in an extract from Roisin Ingle’s new book. Owen Gaffney environmental influencer and co-author of Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity, talks to Kevin O’Sullivan. And there is a Q&A with Alice Taylor.
Reviews are Brendan O’Leary on The World by Simon Sebag Montefiore; Tony Clayton-Lea on the best new music books; Michael Cronin on the best new translations; John Quin on God’s Teeth and Other Phenomena by James Kelman; Oliver Farry on China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower by Frank Dikotter; Malachy Clerkin on The Rodfather by Paul Howard; Sarah Gilmartin on Liberation Day by George Saunders; Sally Hayden on What Have You Left Behind by Bushra al-Maqtari, translated by Sawad Hussain; and Lucy Sweeney Byrne on The Last Chairlift by John Irving.
This Saturday’s Irish Times Eason offer is Girl Forgotten by Karin Slaughter, just €4.99, a €5 saving, when you buy it with your paper.
On Christmas Eve of this year, it will be 10 years since poet and critic Dennis O’Driscoll died. Ahead of that anniversary, Thurles-based poet Larry Doherty has organised an event which takes its name from Dennis’s witty account of growing up in that town, Circling the Square. The event will be in three parts and will take place in Thurles on Saturday, October 22nd, beginning in the gallery of The Source Arts Centre at 11am.
Circling the Square will gather poets from Thurles and around the country. Each will read a poem by Dennis along with some of their own work. A number of musicians will also take part in the event. Readings will take place in The Source Arts Centre and Bookworm bookshop with an open mic. session later in The Arch Bar. Among those who will read on the day are Emily Cullen, Eleanor Hooker, Kerry Hardie, Áine Ní Ghlinn, Michael Cody, Margaret O’Brien, Arthur Broomfield, John Noonan and many others.
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The Leaves Festival 2022 brings the best of Irish writing and music to Co Laois this November 8th-12th, with Booker Prize shortlisted Claire Keegan as its first festival-length writer in residence. She will be in conversation with novelist and broadcaster Edel Coffey as well as conducting workshops in schools. libraries and Portlaoise prison. Small Things Like These is also the October One County One Book for Co Laois. There’ll also be two screenings of the award-winning film An Cailín Ciúin based on her story, Foster.
Other highlights include a celebration of 40 years of Salmon Publishing with a music and poetry event; Laois natives poet Pat Boran and chef Rory O’Connell in conversation with Katy McGuinness; Ronán Hession in conversation with broadcaster Clare O’Brien; and rediscover the magic of reading with What Poems Look Like for Children with Dr Becky Long. leavesfestival.ie
2022 is the centenary year of the late writer Leland Bardwell and her son, the composer John McLachlan, has been organising several events and publications to mark the anniversary. A small arts festival in her honour marking her support for visual artists and her legacy as a writer, takes place at the Model, Sligo next month. The visual art aspect runs from November 1st to 17th, with the literary programme taking place on November 11th to 13th. The three new titles are My Name Suspended in the Air (Lepus Print, February 2022), The Heart and the Arrow (Doire Press, October), and Collected Poems (Salmon Poetry, November).
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bandit country (Picador Poetry), the debut collection by Newry poet James Conor Patterson, has been shortlisted for the 2022 TS Eliot Prize by judges Jean Sprackland (chair), Hannah Lowe and Roger Robinson. Also shortlisted were Victoria Adukwei for Bulley Quiet; Fiona Benson for Ephemeron; Jemma Borg for Wilder; Philip Gross for The Thirteenth Angel; Anthony Joseph for Sonnets for Albert; Zaffar Kunial for England’s Green; Mark Pajak for Slide; Denise Saul for The Room Between Us; and Yomi S.ode for Manorism. “What a joy it’s been for the three of us to have such deep immersion in new poetry,” Jean Sprackland said. “There were a record-breaking 201 entries this year; a reminder that far from being silenced by crisis, poets rise to meet it through language.” The winner will be announced in January.
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The Allingham Festival returns with live events and full-capacity venues in 2022, bringing an outstanding programme of literary celebrities, musicians, speakers and performers to Ballyshannon. from November 2nd-6th.
Literary highlights include: Booker-Prize-shortlisted author Claire Keegan (Small Things Like These, Foster), in conversation with RTE’s Sinéad Crowley; The History Ireland Hedge School – “Donegal in the Civil War”; Book launches at the festival will include Ireland’s Secret War, by Mark McMenamin; Cold-Water Eden, by Richie Fitzgerald; Donegal – The Irish Revolution, 1912-23, by Pauric Travers; The Sound of Water Searching, by Michael O’Dea; and Between the Jigs and the Reels (revisited), by Caoimhín MacAoidh.
